Every musician will always remember the time they got their first instrument. Maybe you had a friend that had given up on music so you exploited his desperation and gave him 50 bucks to help enable his alcoholism for a day or so and in return got his old beat up Fender. Maybe you had always been a huge Steve Martin fan and that one time back in ’08 when you stole that car you noticed there was a banjo in the trunk when you got home…how serendipitous. Or maybe you were like me: You were 14 years old and on Christmas day there was, what looked like, a large gun case behind the Christmas tree. However, instead of a shotgun or rifle it was an old Peavey bass your dad bought for you out of some local pawn shop.
When I was around 11 years old I watched Evil Dead 2 for the first time. I was at a friend’s house and he had HBO. We loved horror movies so when we saw the title “Evil Dead” we knew we were in for a treat. The mom was in bed, we had pillows to cover our eyes, and we had Spaceballs to watch afterwards to was off the horror-nerves so we could go to sleep. I’ll never forget the scene where Ash was playing piano while his girlfriend danced in the background. Something about that piece of music just stuck with me. I don’t know if it was because I loved the movie so much or what but from that moment on I wanted to play piano.
So I convinced my mom to sign me up for piano lessons. We already had a piano in the house, so, not too much of an issue.
Two years later I would get into rock music. I started listening to bands like Megadeth, Cacophony, and Babylon A.D. And it was because of Megadeth’s “In My Darkest Hour” that I was able to hear the bass guitar for the first time.
There were several of my friends already playing guitar. We were all into metal so, of course, you had to play guitar. Drums were too expensive and hard to practice with at home, nobody wanted to be a singer, and there was never really a role for keyboards in speed metal….at least not at that time.
My friends all wanted me to play bass but I was all about the piano. But it was Megadeth that got me into bass.
I saw the bass guitar as this underdog in the band. It was a misunderstood and unappreciated instrument. This was especially the case when you had bands like Metallica mixing the bass guitar so low in the mix that you couldn’t really even tell that a bass guitar was there.
The bassist was the misfit, the odd man out, the rogue of the band. Yes, this was the instrument for me.
I wanted to play the bass and elevate it beyond the guitarist. I wanted to stand out and be noticed as a person that took the bass guitar to the next level.
But then I found out that there were already people doing that. And that’s when I got into solo bass players like Stu Hamm, Randy Coven, Billy Sheehan, and Michael Manring.
I got my first bass guitar on Christmas day. That’s not to say that I was surprised or anything. I already knew I was going to get one.
I’m not very good at being patient. So when my parents were out of the house I’d start snooping around to see what they got me. One day I looked under the bed and saw a large brown case. I pulled it out thinking that it was a gun case. It was no gun though. It was a 4-string Peavey bass guitar.
Wow, I was so excited! I called a friend of mine up and told him the news. He was a guitar player so I started asking him questions about it. “There’s this black thing in the middle of it.”
“That’s called a pickup.”
“Oooooh. But it looks like a thumb rest.”
“No, it’s a pickup.”
On Christmas day my sister and I head into the living room and I see all the presents. The first thing I’m looking for, however, is that large brown case. I don’t see it.
I’m looking all around. Dammit, are they going to save it for my birthday or something? That’s another 7 months away. Come on, I want this bad boy now!
After opening a few gifts I finally spot the brown Peavey hard shell case in the corner propped up against the wall.
Okay, now I have to work on my acting. Time for a show.
Now, several years before I had gotten a Nintendo Gameboy for Christmas. I also knew I was getting this as well. So when I opened that gift I really put on a show. “OH MY GOSH, A GAMEBOY, WHOOOOOOOO.”
This time would be no exception. They told me to open the big box in the corner cause it was for me. I remember saying, “I hope this isn’t a gun or anything.”
I opened it up and acted all happy and freaked out. I like to think I fooled my parents into thinking I didn’t know I was getting it. I had known for about a month or so though.
Ah, it was my first bass guitar. It was the first day of a long road ahead. There would be many hours of practice to come. It was the day that would change my life forever. The piano was forgotten. I was a bass player now.
I found out that my mom didn’t really think I was going to stick to this instrument. I didn’t really go far with the piano lessons because the silly songs I had to learn were frustrating. She thought the bass guitar was going to be the same thing. But my dad felt otherwise. He went to a pawn shop, picked out a bass, and that was that.
Well, I now had my bass. I didn’t have an amp though.
Later on that day my uncle let me borrow his amplifier. He wasn’t a musician though. He just liked to sit outside his house and talk through it. A couple of days later he’d ask for the amp back. I guess he missed addressing his neighborhood through his old guitar amp.
You know, that always bugged me. Why would you let me borrow your guitar amp and then ask for it back two days later knowing that I just got a new instrument. He didn’t even have a guitar. He would just sit around and talk through it with a microphone hooked up to it. What a great neighbor he must’ve been. Ugh.
Anyway, I started taking bass lessons from my friends’ guitar teacher. I took to it pretty well, actually. In fact I started to get very good. I became obsessed with it. I would finish all my homework at school so that when I got home I could just practice.
I remember my first bass lesson and learning my first song. The first song I learned all the way through was Megadeth’s “Dawn Patrol.”
You know how in Harry Potter when Harry has to think of his happiest moment to summon a Patronis? Well, one of the happiest moments in my life was getting home from that lesson, putting in “Dawn Patrol,” and playing along with Megadeth. It sounded just like it. I was playing what David Ellefson was playing.
I played it over and over and over with the tape. I’ll never forget how thrilling it was to be able to sit there and play along with my favorite band. I was hooked. This was it. This was what I wanted to do.
Well, I also wanted to be my guitar teacher’s best student. He’d talk about another bass student of his named Vic. Vic was supposed to be the best bass player of his students. Well, I was going to change that.
Every lesson my teacher gave me I would practice it tell I knew it was better than what Vic could play. Even though I never met Vic or heard him play I would imagine what this great player was sounding like. I wanted to top that.
And on and on it went.
Practice. Practice. Practice.
Just a sweet boy and his bass.
I would use this Peavey bass throughout High School. It felt like I had it for years and years until I finally was able to buy a new one.
Well, I soon got into Dream Theater and I saw that their bass player had a 6-string bass. Well…I mean, I had to have a 6-string bass. That’s all there was to it.
I found out that Ibanez made a 6-string Soundgear that was reasonably priced. Decision made. That was my bass. I ordered one at the local guitar shop that I took lessons from and put it on a layaway plan. Every time I went in for lessons I would pay a little bit on it. I’d see the bass over in the corner. It was mine. Someday I’d pay that layaway off and I could finally have it.
I jumped from 4-string right to a 6-string and it would be probably 20 years later that I bought my first actual 5-string.
I’ll never get rid of that Peavey 4-string though. My dad bought it for me and thought that I would stick to it. He eventually bought me my first little bass amp, too. Something just to practice with.
I never use the Peavey any more. It doesn’t sound that great and it doesn’t play that great. But it was my first and my dad got it for me.
Not to get all sentimental or anything but that always meant a lot to me. My dad and I never had much in common. He was always into cars and hunting and I was always into music, drawing, or writing.
One of the things I knew I wanted to do was ask him to be my Best Man if I ever got married. I knew that it would be a great way to say that I appreciate all the years of believing in me and helping enable me of pursuing my dreams.
I finally got that chance back in 2001 when I got married.
No, the marriage didn’t last very long but that’s okay. For years I wanted to have that moment and I’m glad it happened. My mom and dad are still very supportive of
me.
Sometimes I’ll go over to the house and they’ll be wearing a Cirque Dreams hat or shirt. I have a college degree but instead of that hanging on their wall they’ve got flyers and newspaper articles of me framed. I might’ve been a lawyer if not for that bass guitar.
Whew….close call.
How different my life would’ve been.
But I’m happy. My life is interesting. I love my job and all the decisions I’ve made. No regrets.
I urge any parents out there to encourage your kids if they have any interest in music whatsoever. If your kid says, “well, I’d like either an Xbox 1 or maybe a guitar” I’d say instead of dropping 500 bucks on a video game console that’ll be out of date in a couple of years, drop the same amount of money on a solid instrument that they’ll have and cherish for decades.
I mean, if they ask for an Xbox and have no interest in guitar then don’t surprise them with a new bass under the tree. That’ll be weird.
Get them some lessons and help push them to practice and get them past that first hump of the awkward stage of learning and having to struggle through those boring scales. If you hear them do something that sounds good, tell them it sounds good.
I remember one day I was practicing something on piano and had to stop to go with my dad to pick something up. While we were getting in the truck to leave he was whistling what I had just been playing. It sorta stunned me for a second. How cool was it to have somebody humming something I had just played.
I would spend the rest of my life chasing that same goal of infecting people with my music and getting my ideas into their heads and on their lips.
